Some people say that the New Left was more politically sophisticated
than the Southern Freedom Movement. When I left the South in early 1967
after 4 years with CORE and SCLC I went to New York and then San
Francisco and became a rabid New Leftist. Looking back on it now, and
speaking bitterness from my own experience, I have to say that I do not
believe that the New Left was more politically sophisticated than the
Freedom Movement. In fact, quite the contrary.

The first huge difference that whacked me in the head with a 2x4 when I
left the South was that in the Freedom Movement status and leadership
was for the most part based on what you did, what you endured, and your
success (or lack thereof) organizing real people to do real things that
affected their lives. And that the key litmus test was were you willing
to put your body on the line. But in the New Left, status and leadership
was based on what you said, what you wrote, what you thought, not what
you did or accomplished — and that militant rhetoric,
fiery speeches, and "revolutionary" posturing counted for far more than
actually effecting some real change.

Standing on the stage at an SDS convention and declaring "I'm a
revolutionary communist!" sounded terrifically sophisticated and
militant at the time, but I no longer think so. As I look back on it
now, the Southern Freedom Movement that grounded its strategies and
tactics in the actual real conditions of the time and place, and
grounded its appeals and rhetoric in the religious and political
aspirations and cherished beliefs of large segments of the population
(Black and white), was far more sophisticated — and
effective — than the psuedo-sophistication of our New
Left duels of Maoist quotations and Mickey-Marxist study groups.

And I now believe that the Southern Freedom Movement was also more
sophisticated and effective than the machinations and political
calculations of "mainstream" activists in student government, National
Student Associations, and other career-enhancing springboards to higher
office. I guess that for some of them their political maneuvers were
more sophisticated in terms of building their personal wealth and power
as individuals, but in terms of empowering people as a whole or
improving the lives of those at the bottom of the ladder they were no
where near as sophisticated as the Freedom Movement.